Vanilla Sugar

September 11, 2012

I can’t think of a simpler way to make plain old sugar feel like a total luxury. Vanilla beans have a way of elevating things and a simple vanilla bean placed in a jar of sugar does wonders. Not only does the sugar get infused with vanilla flavor, but also anything you make with it gets speckled with lovely, seemingly decadent vanilla bean seeds.

I’ve listed measurements in the recipe, but it’s really not something that requires precision. All you need to do is scrape a vanilla bean and place the seeds and the pod in a jar of sugar. And if you have any empty, already scraped vanilla bean pods leftover from a recipe (like this one), toss them in the jar too.

Once mixed, let the sugar sit in your pantry (mine is currently filled with a lot of squash). After a couple of weeks, the sugar will have taken on all that wonderful vanilla and will be ready to be sprinkled into coffee or baked into treats.

Vanilla Sugar

2 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean

Place the sugar in a jar. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Stir the seeds into the sugar and then bury the scraped vanilla bean pod in the sugar. Cover the jar and store at room temperature. Wait about 2 weeks before using so that the vanilla has time to infuse the sugar. If the sugar starts clumping, simply shake the jar or stir it with a spoon.

Once you have made a batch, you can keep adding sugar and vanilla beans to the same jar to keep it going. This is also great if you have any leftover pods from a recipe—seeds or no seeds, just stick them in.

I heart vanilla sugar. I’ve been keeping some vanilla pods that I have been told I can blitz up and put through sugar. I’m absolutely going to try making vanilla sugar now that your post has reminded me!

Glad I reminded you! I don’t even think you need to blitz the vanilla pods. I would just stick them in a jar of sugar and they should infuse it nicely. I think my way is perhaps the “lazy” way, but it should still work :)